The Price of the Double Portion - Don't Despise Your Spiritual Birthright

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D on’t Despise Your Spiritual Birthright

The encounter between Jacob and Esau is quite remarkable. It contains several major aspects that the pursuer of spiritual truth would do well to emulate.

A distinction needs to be made between the blessing and the birthright.

Concerning the birthright there is no doubt. It belonged (by birth) to the firstborn, Esau. He sold it to his brother for a bowl of soup! This is a legal business transaction. The price is immaterial. A purchase was made: a price was paid and a product or service was obtained. An exchange had been made.

But the blessing is another matter.

Genesis 27:30-41   And it happened that when Isaac had made an end of blessing Jacob, even it came about that Jacob had hardly gone out from the face of his father Isaac, and his brother Esau came in from his hunting.
31 And he also made delicious things and came to his father. And he said to his father, Let my father rise and eat from the game of his son, so that your soul may bless me.
32 And his father Isaac said to him, Who are you? And he said, I am your son, your first-born, Esau.
33 And Isaac was terrified with a very great anxiety. And he said, Who then was the one who hunted game and came to me; and I ate from it all before you came; and I blessed him? Yea, he shall be blessed.
34 When Esau heard the words of his father he cried out a great and very bitter cry. And he said to his father, Bless me, me also, my father.
35 And he said, Your brother came with deceit and took your blessing.
36 And he said, Is that why his name is called Jacob and has supplanted me these two times? He took me by the heel; he took my birthright and, behold, now he has taken my blessing. And he said, Have you not reserved a blessing for me?
37 And Isaac answered and said to Esau, Behold, I have set him over you as a ruler, and I have given him all his brothers for servants; I have girded him with grain and wine. And what then can I do for you, my son?
38 And Esau said to his father, Is one blessing left to you, my father? Bless me, me also, my father. And Esau lifted up his voice and wept.
39 And his father Isaac answered and said to him, Behold, your dwelling shall be from the fat of the earth and from the dew of the heavens above;
40 and you shall live by your sword, and you shall serve your brother; and when it shall be that you are restless, you shall break his yoke from your neck.
41 And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him. And Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob.

In Conclusion:   One of the Most Pitiful Passages in the Bible:

Hebrews 12:14 -17   Eagerly pursue peace and holiness with all, without which no one will see the Lord,
15 watching diligently that not any lack from the grace of God, that “no root of bitterness growing up” may crowd “in on you,” and through this many be defiled; Deut. 29:18
16 that not any fornicator, or profane one, as Esau, who for one eating gave up his birthright;
17 for you know also that afterwards desiring to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place of repentance, although seeking it out with tears. Gen. 27:36-39

Romans 9:11-13   for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of the One calling,
12  it was said to her, “The greater shall serve the lesser”; Gen. 25:23
13  even as it has been written, “I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau.” Mal. 1:2, 3

Why Did God Love Jacob and Hate Esau?   Before the Boys Were Ever Born!

Jacob Had aDESIRE for Spiritual Truth!